Yesterday, in the “L’entrevista” program, it was the turn to interview Ms. Mercè Conesa, Mayor of Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona). In this occassion, Mònica Hernàndez, the program host, was accompanied by Sara Moreno, Sociology Pofessor at UAB, Josep Gimeno, News Head at cugat.cat, and myself.

The main subjects of the interview were: economic development, employment and community aids, transportation, the undergoing local government reform, smart city and security.

Today I had the opportunity to collaborate in the “L’entrevista” program broadcasted by a national TV and radio Station called Xarxa de comunicació Local along with Mònica Hernàndez, program host, Albert Sàez and Manel Rius. Today was the occasion to interview the Mayor of Manresa, Mr. Valentí Junyent.

The Catalan public station TV3 has recently produced and broadcasted a documentary regarding the rebuilding process of the city of Barcelona entitled “Empty, full. The Arrhythmic City” (Buit, ple. La ciutat arítmica).

In my opinion, the documentary is haunted by a functionalist gaze that assumes the role of the city as an ecosystem.

Here is the video (in Catalan) on Youtube as the official link (http://www.tv3.cat/videos/4600771/Buit-ple-La-ciutat-aritmica) does not support embedding the video on the blog:

Previous research has emphasized that residential mobility is a key factor to understand the social and institutional context that shapes local political dynamics, especially in processes of suburbanization of metropolitan regions. Recent work has already pointed out that local communities with higher rates of recent population growth show lower levels of turnout compared to others with significantly lower levels or even negative growth. However, due to both the aggregate nature of most data available and sample designs, no firm conclusions can be arrived at regarding the specific relationship between residential mobility and the individual and contextual determinants of social and

political behavior. In this paper we explore the interaction between individual and contextual features to better understand the problems that suburbanization pose to local community engagement. We use data from a survey specifically designed to comply with the requirements of the study. The sample was designed through strata that take into account the recent population growth of Catalan municipalities. Results show the relevance of accounting for both individual- and contextual-level variables to better understand the political and social dimensions of residential mobility and local suburbanization.

“What does happen at night in the suburbs? When asked this question to users, most of them evoke the boyd and the boredom. Others speak of insecurity and crime. These polarized responses reflect a fact: the night is an unknown universe.

Yet while thousands of people go to bed, part of the population wakes up in the suburbs of Montreal. An active night, which is rarely discussed. Evidence that the “dormitory town” not only sleep.

It is in this spirit that we created # BanlieueLaNuit, immersive, informative and social experience of the nightlife in the metropolitan crown”